I want to take a nap with him in my arms. If I can’t spend the night, I want what I can get. I need more but I make do.
Elliot needs me.
I’m starting to drift when he speaks again. “Why do you put up with me?”
I wish I had the power to reach inside his soul, rip out the festering seed that I haven’t been able to help eradicate, and allow him to heal once and for all. “Because I love you,MisterVice President.”
He sighs and snuggles a little closer and finally goes to sleep in my arms.
Why do I put up with him?
Because I can’t imagine not having him in my life.
Because I love him.
Because he needs me, and I’m terrified what would happen to him if he didn’t have me.
Because I damn well know there are others out there who’d scoop him up and use him in bad ways without a thought to how it would destroy him.
Because he’s also an innocent, in his own way.
Because unless he orders me to leave, I know I can never walk away from him.
Because he’s the center of my universe.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I’m running on about five hours sleep the next morning. I left Elliot peacefully and deeply asleep in his bed just a few hours ago.
I won’t lie, it was tempting to shut off my alarm and go back to sleep and stay there.
Unfortunately, the massive freak-out he would’ve had when he awakened to find me still there would have completely undone all the good our session did for him. He lives in a one-bedroom apartment, so he can’t claim I slept in the guest room.
I’ve already texted Elliot good morning and received not only a reply but a winking smiley face and a thank you.
I knock on Jordan’s door at 7:55. He answers barefoot, and with his short hair damp from his shower. He’s once again wearing khakis, and a light blue Oxford button-up, the collar open. I think he’s going to be adding a tie and I manage—barely—not to offer to tie it for him.
Yup, here comes that word again.
Adorable.
“Sorry. I’ll be ready in a minute.” He sounds a little breathless.
“Everything all right?”
Gorgeous pink rises in his cheeks. “Um, yeah! F-fine.” He smiles. “Just took longer in the shower than I planned.”
He turns away from me, which is good, because I’m grinning. I catch sight of myself in the mirror and tone it back a notch from Joker-poisons-Gotham levels to only moderately disturbing.
There’s context there I’m sure Jordan thinks he’s hidden, and I’ll let him keep thinking that.
If he didn’t just stroke one out in the shower, then I have no business in the job I’m currently in.
Makes me wonder who he was thinking about while he did it.
Can’t exactly talk about that with him right now, though. I mean, yeah, I totally could manipulate him to the point we could talk about it, but that’s not ethical.
Right?
